LeBron James calls Kyrie Irving the most skilled player he has ever seen, after Steve Nash says he may be the most skilled ever

LeBron James has been asked about plenty of teammates over a long career, and on the latest Mind the Game podcast he gave a short answer about Kyrie Irving. After co-host Steve Nash said Irving is “probably the most skilled player to ever play our game,” James agreed and went further: “He’s the most skilled I’ve ever seen, and I’ve watched a lot of basketball and played a lot of basketball.”

James and Nash on Irving, from the Mind the Game podcast, posted on X by Dunk Central.

Nash’s case: skill first, then movement

The clip opens with the two talking about Irving’s age and his knee. He is 34, nearly 35, and still coming back from the torn ACL that cost him all of last season. One of them says he looked “very spry” in the preseason and kept the stop-on-a-dime moves and one-legged runners.

Then Nash lays out his argument. The breadth of skills comes first: handling, shooting from all angles and finishing, enough that “he could play a long time just on that.” What makes Irving special, Nash says, is that he is also “one of the best movers,” with quickness, change of direction, deceleration and control of his body in the air. “We don’t always lead with who’s the best athlete in the league: Kyrie, because he didn’t dunk on nine guys.”

The finish James cannot shake

James then described one play he wanted the show to pull up in slow motion, a playoff drive against the Clippers when Irving was with Dallas. By James’ telling, Irving went up, moved the ball in the air, moved it again with Paul George behind him and finished over both defenders. “How did he make this?” James said he asked himself, even as someone who has played alongside Irving, before returning to his point: the most skilled player he has seen, “crazy athlete on top of the skill.”

What Irving has done since he came back

The praise lands in the middle of Irving’s return. He missed all of last season after tearing his ACL in March 2025, then played his first home game in 604 days on Oct. 28, when the Dallas Mavericks beat Oklahoma City 120-96. After that game he said coming back “feels amazing” and that he was “not taking any moment for granted,” and he described his burst as “an A plus” while he was still on a minutes restriction.

Irving after his home return, in the postgame interview posted on X.

Two nights later he scored 35 with nine assists and made five threes as Dallas beat Houston 116-111, alongside 33 from Cooper Flagg. In that same interview he said that, while he was out, he texted Flagg after games and tried to coach from the sideline. “It’s not many 18 and 19 year olds” who lead a team in every statistical category, he said, and when Flagg asks for advice, “you got to be honest with him.”

Irving sat out Monday’s 115-100 loss to Sacramento for left knee management, and he is not on Dallas’ injury list for Wednesday, when the Mavericks visit Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs at 9:30 p.m. ET, 4:30 a.m. Thursday in Cairo. If he plays, the player two of the sport’s biggest names just called the most skilled they have seen will have a chance to show it against the league’s best young big man.